Our Community

Matters

There’s someone I want you to meet.

Keenan Mundine, pictured above, has just returned from Geneva, where he addressed the United Nations Humans Rights Commission, urging it to pressure Australia to raise the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14.

When Keenan’s not addressing the UNHRC, he’s running his own business, Inside Out Aboriginal Justice Consultancy. And on weekends you’ll find him hanging out and playing basketball with at-risk Indigenous youth, helping them to make

good choices through an outreach program he operates in inner Sydney.

Yet until he was in his late twenties, Keenan had spent most of his life in prison.

In the photo above, taken in 2009, he was serving time at Oberon Correctional Centre, NSW. He was still behind bars when he began the incredibly hard work that has brought him to the place he occupies today, as a community leader working to improve people’s lives through his vision, his determination and his continuing work.

Edition 4, 2018 • August

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What is community leadership?

BY KERRYN BURGESS, EDITOR

The leadership issue

Our Community Matters • 2 •What is community leadership? (continued)

Community leadership is embedded in community, and there is perhaps no better example of this than Keenan’s experience.

Community leadership is a product of networks, contributions, collaborations and role modelling, not of hierarchies. It means walking with the community, listening to the members, and developing the capacity of others to build community too. Sometimes it is as fundamental as developing other people’s ability to take care of themselves and take responsibility for themselves, in preparation for developing their own ability to lead.

To read Keenan’s take on community leadership, and to find out more about his journey, turn to page 4.

This issue of Our Community Matters is dedicated to leadership, and it’s packed with resources, opportunities, tips and stories. Enjoy.

Leadership and advocacy resourcesAustralia has more than 600,000 community groups of vastly differing sizes and shapes. And from within those groups, strong leaders and advocates, and potential strong leaders and advocates, are helping to bring about positive change. To help with this important work, we’ve grouped a stack of leadership and advocacy tools and resources in a special section of the Our Community website called “Take Control”. Here’s a taste of what you’ll find there:

Great speeches and interviewsExplore the words of some of Australia’s most prominent leaders, including speeches delivered at the annual Communities in Control conference.

Advocacy help sheets and toolsWhat you need to know to run an advocacy campaign, including methods and tactics.

Leadership coursesWe’ve compiled a list of leadership courses on offer in Australia. And our very own Diploma of Business (Governance) incorporates study that will help develop your leadership muscles.

You’ll find them all here:www.communitiesincontrol.com.au//cic/take-control/

Contents

GREAT GRANT 3

PROFILE: KEENAN MUNDINE 4

INTRODUCING OUR COMMUNITY HOUSE 8

THE ART OF ARTS LEADERSHIP 9

WHAT MAKES A GOOD COMMUNITY LEADER? 12

THE CRITICAL NEED FOR DISABILITY LEADERSHIP 13

COMMUNITY BONDS ARE OUR BEST INSURANCE 17

ANALYSIS: WHEN IS A CHARITY NOT A CHARITY? 19

PODCASTS AVAILABLE NOW: COMMUNITIES IN CONTROL 20

FUNDING: GIVENOW DONATIONS PLATFORM BUCKS NATIONAL TREND 21

NEWS: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS TO FUNDRAISING REGULATION INQUIRY 22

NEED TO KNOW: YOUR TWO-MINUTE NEWS DIGEST 23

PREVIEW: COMMUNITY DIRECTORS CONFERENCE 24

UPSKILL: TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES 26

GOOD SUPPLIERS 28

GOOD JOBS 29

BOARD MATCHING SERVICE 30

COMMUNITY CALENDAR 31

Our Community Matters • 3 •Professional development

In this issue of Our Community Matters, our featured “Great Grant” is not actually a grant but a scholarship.“Enabling positive social change” is one of the focus areas of the Westpac Future Leaders Scholarship.

The scholarship will enable the 17 successful candidates to do postgraduate study at an Australian university. It also entails overseas travel.

A key feature of the scholarship is the Leadership Development Program, a nine-month program created in collaboration with recognised experts in leadership excellence.

Two other focus areas are also available, taking the total to three:

1. Enabling positive social change

2. Technology and innovation

3. Strengthening Australia–Asia ties

Each scholarship is valued at up to $120,000, typically over two to three years, for research or coursework studies at graduate level.

EligibilityYou are eligible to apply if:

• You are an Australian citizen or permanent resident (New Zealand citizens who are not also Australian citizens are not eligible).

• You completed your first undergraduate degree after 1 September 2013, or will complete by 31 December 2018.

• You have achieved or are on track to achieve an average result of H1 or H2A equivalent (approx. 75%).

• You have chosen to undertake a full-time Masters by coursework or research or a PhD at one of nine participating universities.

Other eligibility criteria also apply.

How to apply Applications close on September 5. For detailed information and to apply, visit bicentennial.westpacgroup.com.au/scholarships/future-leaders/faqs.

The Westpac Future Leaders Scholarship is powered by SmartyGrants and promoted by the Funding Centre.

Great Grant: Future Leaders Scholarship

Our Community Matters • 4 •Profile

Alcohol, drugs, violence and police presence formed the background to Keenan Mundine’s childhood on the Block in Redfern in the early 1990s. His mother died when he was six, and his father soon afterwards. Keenan and his two older brothers, all of primary school age but now orphans, were soon split up and sent to live with various relatives. By age 14, Keenan had spent his first of many nights in juvenile detention. By his late twenties, he had spent more of his life in prison than out of it.

Our Community Matters caught up with Keenan, now 31, the week he returned from a trip to Geneva last month to address the UN Human Rights Council.

Our Community Matters: You were in Geneva to ask the UNHCR to pressure Australian governments to raise the age of criminal

responsibility from 10 to 14 years. How did that come about?

Keenan Mundine: It’s in line with the advocacy work I do for Indigenous rights, particularly around the criminal justice system. I’ve worked with the Change the Record Coalition, which advocates and lobbies in Parliament for justice for Indigenous people, and looks for creative ways to go about it – not just imprisoning people and doing all of this stuff that has a very negative effect on the community and on people’s health.

So people have heard my consistent voice and my consistent message. They wanted me to represent that message and be the voice of the people who are affected by the problem the most. I was very grateful to have that opportunity.

You used that word “consistent” a few times.

From Redfern to the United Nations: Keenan Mundine on

Indigenous leadership

There are many different paths to community leadership, but probably none so rarely travelled as the one taken by Keenan Mundine.

BY KERRYN BURGESS, EDITOR

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Our Community Matters • 5 •Profile (continued)

This is a cause you’ve been dedicated to for a long time.

I’ve been doing this for about three years: sharing my lived experience of coming through the criminal justice system and then navigating out of that, how difficult that was and how difficult it still is, and the impact that it has on me still, making those choices.

I’ve watched your speech in Geneva on YouTube. Describe what it was like being there.

It was like a dream come true to be there. I was overwhelmed. I only had 120 seconds to deliver my speech, so I’m very grateful that the people who prepared me for it took the time to support me and get me prepared to take on this big challenge. As everybody could see, I was there by myself on the other side of the world, while my family was here. And I done it, man, I put my best foot forward. Hopefully people will take notice of the message and we can improve life for our young people and our children and our grandchildren.

You had a hell of a rough childhood by any measure. There was a lot of dysfunction going on around you – violence, drugs, instability – and you were just a kid. Was there anyone during that time that you did look up to in a leadership role?

My sort of leader and the person I looked up to the most was my oldest brother. I was very, very, very young when most of that traumatic stuff happened. So I don’t really remember it. But what I do remember is my brother being there for me all the time, taking us to school, being the big brother that he could be at that time.

Then they split us up.

The traits and the leadership qualities that I took from him were his strength, his courage, his love, his care for us: taking care of his little brothers, his family. So it played a positive role on me because I wanted to be that guy and I wanted to look after my family the way he looked after his family. And here I am today. [Keenan and his wife have two young boys.]

What other leaders have influenced you since

that time? Who have you looked up to?

This has only come of late, with me learning the skills that I had to learn to survive, that I’ve come to realise I haven’t been stable enough and in one spot long enough to have one person in my life longer than 12 months.

I’ve been with my partner, now my wife, since my last incarceration, but she’s been the only consistent person who’s been in my life long enough to make an impact on me.

My heroes of history that I have read along my journey and come to understand and sort of aspire to be like: one of the leaders that influenced me the most in my work is Nelson Mandela, for me to push forward and make the change for my people that I need to make.

It’s heartbreaking to think of not being in one spot long enough to have people as role models.

A lot of people have asked me whether I’ve had mentors. I had no one to teach me any sort of, you know, skills to be the man I need to be, or a father or a husband. It’s me piecing together the puzzle and the information that I picked up just surviving.

I guess nobody in Australia has led the life that I’ve led as an Indigenous man and not just come out of it [the criminal justice system] but been a strong advocate for supporting and changing people’s lives and leading the way. So I have to.

I don’t know anyone who’s done it, so I guess my future and the goal for me and my wife in the work that I do is just trying to find the pathway to get there. Taking it day by day, little strategies and little programs and little partnerships and work to be able to [make changes] not just for myself but for my family, my community, my people and my country. One day at a time.

[I want] to help people understand, man, how difficult it was for me to move away from one life and create a whole new life at 25 and a whole new identity. Man! And do the amazing work that I’m doing, and to be able to put all of that negativity and that life behind me, and promote nothing but peace, love and positivity. {

Our Community Matters • 6 •Profile (continued)

Tell us about the work you’re doing now.

My consultancy, Inside Out Aboriginal Justice Consultancy, has gotten a couple of contracts: with Shine for Kids, and I work now closely with the out of home care agency, where I provide cultural support for them. I’m developing and building a mentoring program for the kids in their care and emergency care, and I work with them, their staff and their board.

On the weekend I operate a detached-youth work program from 4 pm till about 10 pm each night. It’s an early intervention and prevention program. We’re targeting young kids out on the street that are at risk or un-engageable or do not access inhouse facilities, so they don’t engage with community services, because of their behaviours, their lifestyle and their personality. They don’t fit in. They get banned from these places, so they drink in the park and hang out and get up to risky behaviours.

I’m in negotiations with a prison to be the first ex-offender privately contracted to go back in and facilitate a program.

I think the biggest thing for me is just to be me, stay true to my message, be consistent and be accessible to the young people in the community. To be a role model by leading by example, by staying out of trouble, being a family man. I’m not preaching to anyone, I’m just showing them that I’ve been there and I’ve made some really, really bad choices. And those choices affected me beyond any sort of reality I could comprehend.

This is why I love the work I do: I share my story and my message the way I am. I say: if you guys want to go there, it’s going to be really, really hard to come back, and I want to prevent that.

Are there any generalisations that you can make about what Indigenous leadership is like?

You can’t label yourself a leader. Being a leader, especially an Indigenous leader, or being given that title, that’s an endowment; it’s bestowed upon you by the community. You can’t just come out and label yourself a leader. If that’s what my people see me as, man, I’m very, very honoured.

Being a leader means knowing the journey and knowing how to get to the destination and having the right people around you.

Being a leader in the Indigenous community, especially as a man, you have to be a trailblazer and walk a path that nobody’s walked before. You can’t be a leader if you’re walking a path that somebody’s already walked, because that automatically makes you a follower.

It’s interesting you say it’s different for men.

Yeah. I’ve been thinking about this recently. This year’s NAIDOC Week theme was “Because of her, we can”. Everybody is acknowledging the women in our communities.

For any Indigenous person to do what they’re doing today, they were nurtured by a woman.

For any leader, it needs to be recognised that their traits came from their mum just as much as from their father. {

Keenan, age four, growing up in Redfern, Sydney.

Our Community Matters • 7 •Profile (continued)

But in Indigenous communities, and for me personally, most of our men, statistically, are removed or in prison or dead. So all of our men today are being raised in communities by women. Aunties, nans, mums, sisters, cousins. There are hardly any men that are raising our children out there.

It needs to really be acknowledged. It’s not just my theory or my thought process, but the stats. All of our men are taken away, in custody, in prison or mental illness, which means our children are being raised by women.

That, to me, goes to show the strength of the women, not just women in Indigenous communities, but every community.

I heard someone say recently, “If we as a country listened more to our Indigenous leaders, we wouldn’t be in the mess that we’re in.” How would you respond to that?

If you’re going to talk about Indigenous people in the criminal justice system, the best person to speak to about that is [someone like] me. You can’t take away my lived experience, my knowledge and my expertise of going through this system that is set up, from the police, to the courtroom, to the detention centres, to the parole system, to coming out. I’ve been from the front end to the back end, from the top end to the bottom.

And you know, when working and developing new things to support people like me, there has never been anybody to sit at the table and help identify

the best ways to support people coming out of poverty or marginalised communities or criminal justice systems.

So it’s time to listen and work with us. You know, it’s our community, it’s our country, it’s our family, so let’s just work together and tackle it and we’ll all just sit down and listen to each other and make this happen.

I don’t want to do all the work as an Indigenous person. I want to empower everyone in our country to understand the potential, what Indigenous people have, what people from problematic and marginalised and poor socio-economic communities have in terms of their lived experience and their expertise to be able to help. That grass roots level knowledge and power and support. That’s the way in which my community and Indigenous people have operated for 40,000 years. And that’s how we continue to operate.

MoreInside Out Aboriginal Justice Consultancy: www.insideoutajc.com.au

Change the Record Coalition: changetherecord.org.au

Listen to Keenan Mundine’s speech to the UN Human Rights Commission: www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_rE9_AnJCg&t=19s

Contact Keenan: www.insideoutajc.com.au/contact

http://www.ourcommunity.com.au/OChouse/?utm_campaign=ongoing&utm_medium=ocmatters&utm_source=ourcommunity.com.au

Our Community Matters • 9 •Leadership

Nowadays, there is a host of organisations providing leadership training and skills, including ICDA, which incorporates leadership information in its Diploma of Business (Governance).

The Australia Council for the Arts – the federal government’s arts funding and advisory body – provides specialist training for a nominal fee to selected upcoming and experienced arts leaders in a program that takes just 50 candidates per year.

The training caters to emerging leaders (the Future Leaders program) and to mid-career and established leaders (the Arts Leaders program).

We quizzed the Council’s director of capacity building, Kevin du Preez, about the leadership programs, which are now in their eighth year.

Can a good leader be “made”, or do some people just “have it”?

Both things come in to play. When it comes to identifying emerging leaders, traits play a key role. But when it comes to effectiveness, I think we all need to develop constantly.

There is a risk here: that we sometimes tap certain types of leaders on the shoulder for leadership positions based on certain traits – for instance, they are an extrovert or great public speaker – but we then are perplexed when they do not perform.

But for me, that just begs the question: what development did that leader need to perform well?

The art of arts leadership

BY KEVIN DU PREEZ WITH MATTHEW SCHULZ, JOURNALIST, OUR COMMUNITY

Are leaders born, made, or something in between? It’s a tricky question, and one that’s been debated since humans first sat around a fire deciding who was going to be in charge.

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The Australia Council for the Arts hosts a highly competitive leadership program targeting new and established arts practitioners and workers. Picture: Australia Council

Our Community Matters • 10 •Leadership (continued)

What do you think makes a good leader?

This is a complex question, and one that must be viewed in context, but I offer the following list of qualities that keep coming up when we work with leaders: engaged, good communicator, visionary, persuasive, courageous, responsive, confident, relevant, entrepreneurial, ethical, culturally competent, global, informed, thinks critically, inventive, creative, politically astute, generous, respected, resilient, connected and charming.

Our own candidates have nominated common “gap” areas for further study, including collaboration, diversity, moral leadership, cultural awareness, innovation, strategic thinking and advocacy.

[Ed’s note: At the Communities in Control conference, we asked delegates and speakers a similar question. Read more – and listen to their answers – on page 12.]

What’s different about leadership in the arts? And why is this program needed?

In the arts, unlike in some other industries, many leaders take on leadership not out of any desire or aim but out of necessity. In fact, many leaders in the arts shy away from using the term “leadership”.

The arts ecology is always changing, and our sector is especially volatile and complex, with disruption a constant issue. Arts leaders must be able to tackle disruption and change with new skills and capabilities and respond to challenges in a creative way.

While the Australia Council has a long history of providing professional and leadership development, previous training focused on backing emerging leaders with skills and capabilities as a form of “succession planning”.

But we identified a gap: arts leadership programs that were financially and culturally accessible for artists and arts workers. And at the same time, we wanted to cultivate more change agents and cohorts of peers to support each other, because we know they will achieve more together.

That’s partly why the program is co-designed with the sector and facilitated by expert leaders from our sector, and the focus is on participants developing leadership through self-reflection and exploring the latest thinking around leadership models through deep interaction with peers and guests.

This all helps develop a clear understanding of their purpose and being able to lead others to achieve this with them. You need to be able to connect with the greater cause.

Of course, arts leadership – much like the definition of art itself – is a regularly contested concept, which is why we examine leadership through various lenses such as culture, philosophy, gender, art form and more. Our leaders also must have a deep understanding and connection with our First Nations culture and colleagues, and that is a key feature of the program.

The program involves up to three intensive residentials of up to six days, often in regional Australia, supplemented with up to four online gatherings, over six months for Future Leaders and a year for Arts Leaders.

These are often backed up with a secondment, mostly overseas, and a challenging group project. {

Kevin du Preez is in charge of the Australia Council’s leadership development programs.

Our Community Matters • 11 •Leadership (continued)

We have also opened up the program through our Leadership Exchange program, inviting 200 other arts leaders to sessions in centres such as Dubbo, Hobart, Cairns, Gold Coast, and Adelaide.

Who can do the Australia Council leadership program?

We receive over 300 applications each year, but it is difficult to get into, with 50 positions available.

We keep these cohorts small, because it is difficult to do this kind of work with larger groups, but we encourage people to re-apply. For many applicants – even those who aren’t successful – the process also helps clarify their leadership development goals.

The program targets arts leaders from across the arts and the Asia Pacific, with the aim of developing strong leadership to ensure our sector is thriving and sustainable, by investing in the development of the people who lead the sector.

Each year, we include four to six international participants in the group, who come as part of the Australia Council International Leadership Program (Asia Pacific), attracting students from India, China, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Participants include artists and managers from organisations of all sizes, as well as independent practitioners from every state and territory, representing every art stream.

MoreThe Australia Council Leadership Program

More leadership programs

This article was first published in Community Directors Intelligence, the member newsletter of the Institute of Community Directors Australia (ICDA). Read more from Community Directors Intelligence here.

Members of the 2018 Future Leaders intake. Picture: Australia Council.

Our Community Matters • 12 •Toolbox

Each year, Our Community hosts the Communities in Control conference for 1000 representatives of community organisations and not-for-profits, activists and progressive thinkers from across Australia and beyond.

And what better place than a convention centre crammed with leaders to find out the secrets of good community leadership, especially given this year’s conference theme: “Activating community leadership to combat inequality”.

What makes a good community leader? We asked the question of former Australian Human Rights Commission president GillianTriggs, US education pioneer Mary Gentile, political commentator Jamila Rizvi, animal rights advocate Philip Wollen, social researcher Hugh Mackay, and economist Nicholas Gruen, as well as several articulate delegates.

The answers varied as much as the people we spoke to, but some powerful recurring themes emerged.

Several talked about the significance of listening (we heard that one a LOT), resilience, “playing to your strengths”, creativity and imagination, “telling the truth fearlessly and forcefully”, good communication, seeking equality, harnessing passion – and of course listening. But don’t take our word for it, watch the video yourself.

More

Lessons from Communities in Control 2018

What makes a good community leader?

BY MATTHEW SCHULZ, JOURNALIST, OUR COMMUNITY

Delegates at the latest Communities in Control conference. Picture: Ellen Smith.

WATCH NOW: Experts and delegates discuss community leadership

Our Community Matters • 13 •Leadership

Australia is slipping in the global business rankings. We’re down from 17 to 21 for business competitiveness, and down from 17 to 27 for business efficiency. In a country that is working hard to be innovative, focused on science and space, with a leading role in guiding our planet into the future, this is a serious matter. So, what’s going wrong?

We’re just not very good at diversity. Diversity is the key to better bottom lines, teams with faster problem-solving abilities, and greater innovation capacity. Diversity is what we need to focus on if we want our government, corporate, and third sectors to be the best that they can be. Australia is excellent at counting diverse cohorts of people, but not very good at using those people for their expertise and their whole range of talents.

Australia is also particularly poor at diversity in leadership. It is still a remarkable thing to see a person with disability, for example, in parliament or a board room. Worse still, we have no track record in using our diverse talent

intersectionally, in understanding that many people are part of multiple diversity groups.

Intersectionality: avoiding siloesIntersectionality recognises population groups, but it also recognises that many people in minority or disadvantaged groups come from one or more of those groups. A person might be an Indigenous woman with disability, or a young trans culturally diverse man. Intersectionality is when different population groups intersect within the same person – the United Nations has also called it “multiple disadvantage”.

Approaching diversity through the prism of intersectionality assists us with bringing different population groups into a recruitment process without siloing into one area. It recognises that all diversity groups are present right across our population.

Development support neededIntersectionality is one thing, but it needs to go hand in hand with recognising that people with

The critical need for disability leadership

BY CHRISTINA RYAN, CEO AND FOUNDER, DISABILITY LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE

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“DISABILITY LEADERS HAVE DEVELOPED AN ABILITY TO THINK LATERALLY, TO WORK OUT A WAY, SOME

WAY, ANY WAY, TO APPROACH A PROBLEM.”

Christina Ryan

Our Community Matters • 14 •Leadership (continued)

disabilities are leaders and have considerable qualities to contribute to shaping Australia’s future. Disability leaders are potentially the missing element that is needed to improve those global business rankings.

While various diversity groups have had increasing levels of attention to their development, including leadership training and support, people with disabilities have been left by the wayside. Australia has never had a consistent ongoing program to develop disability leaders or to support those who are doing leadership work.

Unlike other diversity groups who have had specialist leadership programs for some time, people with disabilities are expected to cut it in the mainstream. No prizes for guessing why there aren’t many leaders with disabilities kicking around. In fact, a 2016 survey showed that most of the disability leaders who access mainstream leadership training are then marginalised and never get to use their skills and qualifications.

The Disability Leadership Institute (DLI) is now providing Australia’s first ongoing program of disability leadership development and support. Instead of continually working to address the outcomes of inequality, such as endemic violence, the DLI is working on addressing that

inequality directly by making sure disability leaders are skilled up and in the room.

People with disabilities have almost no presence in politics, in high levels of business or government, or as members of boards or advisory groups. Often it is assumed that there are simply no people with disabilities qualified to operate at these levels, or that people with disabilities can only be experts in disability-related areas. So, leaders with disabilities are rarely in the room and remain invisible. Few disability leaders are known; even fewer are appointed or recognised.

Defining disability leadershipBeing in the room is a skill, but leadership isn’t just about skills, it’s also about attributes or personal qualities. So, the DLI has been examining what “disability leadership” is. Is it a different style of leadership from others? In what way? Are there things that disabled people have to offer that others don’t?

These are big questions and we don’t yet have definitive answers, but we can start by recognising that Australia already has people leading our disability rights movement, those who pull everyone together, lead the conversation, mentor the emerging talent. Then there are the (very few) disability leaders who

Disability leaders don’t need wilderness training to build resilience and persistence – they’ve accumulated these qualities over a lifetime.

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Our Community Matters • 15 •Leadership (continued)

are out in the mainstream. This is still a very unresearched area and it needs a lot more work, so the DLI’s current research has focused on the first group.

The DLI has identified some specific leadership qualities that leaders with disabilities exhibit. These qualities interrelate but seem to be present across the cohort of disability leaders:

1. Resilient

The gold star leadership quality that the books all say leaders need to develop, yet disability leaders already have it in spades. There is nothing like being marginalised and discriminated against daily, and still managing to change the world, to build resilience. Many disability leaders do this while in great pain and without the right supports or equipment. Leadership training over the years has put people through extreme situations as a way of getting in touch with themselves and how they relate to others. A bonus of disability is that you get the extreme experience without having to pay a course fee or undertaking wilderness training!

2. Lateral thinking

Disability leaders operate with little or no resources, lack of supports, wrong supports,

no money, and while being marginalised. So, they’ve developed an ability to think laterally, to find solutions outside the box, to work out a way, some way, any way, to approach a problem or barrier. In some ways this is about attitude: “I’ve decided this will happen; we just have to work out how”. Disability leaders are experts in lateral thinking and use it constantly.

3. Persistent

Refusing to accept barriers. There is no way a person can operate as a disability leader unless they can manage to plough on and refuse to let anything get in their way. The barriers are enormous and varied; everything that has been achieved by the disability community has been against the odds, through sheer persistence, with a strong sense of “get it done”, often at the expense of the people concerned. People have literally put their lives on the line for progress. Disability leaders are often asked to speak at conferences that have no ramps to the stage, or where the toilets are three floors down and need a key, or to fund their own access needs, or to work in environments that are inherently hostile, or alongside people who bully and harass them. Persistence contributes the ability to come at things another way. No problem is

Problem-solving and collaboration come naturally to some leaders – but particularly disability leaders.

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Our Community Matters • 16 •Leadership (continued)

insurmountable; a person just works out how to get around it. Once the decision has been made that something must happen, then it’s simply a matter of how it will happen. The rest is detail.

4. Inclusive

It’s very topical and creating a lot of work for diversity consultants, yet disability leaders are already specialists in this critical quality: the ability to make sure that everyone who needs to be present is, and to then make sure that everyone present can participate equally. Disability leaders do this without thinking; it is part of their fabric and their modus operandi. It comes from working with such a large and diverse community every day.

5. Collaborative

Rather than going it alone, disability leaders are highly collaborative leaders who pull coalitions together and work with groups. For many this is necessary simply because they are not in a position to work alone, while for others it is an extension of inclusion and their problem-solving inclinations. When disability leaders have an idea, they are more likely to reach out to colleagues to collaborate than to operate in isolation.

A different style of leadershipWhen considering these attributes and the way disability leaders approach problems, it becomes clear that this is a different style of leadership from what is going around already. It is leadership that can contribute substantially to resolving big-picture real-world challenges.

With Australia’s slippage in the global business rankings, we need to start thinking more outside the box. We need all the innovation and lateral thinking we can find.

For many people, it is still confronting to hear the words “disability” and “leadership” in the same sentence. They haven’t necessarily ruled out the idea of disability leadership, but it simply hasn’t occurred to them that it exists and that it should be embraced, developed and used. There remains a total absence of action to build and support disability leaders within leading government, corporate and third sector agencies, even in organisations that have a strong number of disabled employees in their workforce.

Disability leaders are inventive, persistent, but most of all resilient in ensuring that they play a role in shaping the agenda. Australia needs its disability leaders. It needs their experience and valuable attributes to shift the big picture so that Australia remains globally competitive, can meet the challenges of the future, and can develop solutions that are creative and collaborative.

Christina Ryan has been an active leader in the Australian disability community for over 20 years, working at an international, national and local level to change the diversity agenda. She pioneered the use of mainstream forums by women with disabilities at the United Nations, and now mentors and teaches effective use of the UN for rights activists globally. She established the Disability Leadership Institute in 2016 as a professional hub run by and for disability leaders.

“FOR MANY PEOPLE, IT IS STILL CONFRONTING TO HEAR THE WORDS ‘DISABILITY’ AND ‘LEADERSHIP’ IN THE SAME

SENTENCE … IT SIMPLY HASN’T OCCURRED TO THEM THAT IT EXISTS AND THAT IT SHOULD BE EMBRACED.”

Our Community Matters • 17 •Toolbox

Remember just weeks ago when all we could talk about were the 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach trapped by rising water and facing near-certain death in a dark cave?

Now, as the TV news crews have packed up shop,

and we’ve all turned our attention back to the latest sports, political machinations, heroics and villainy, I’ve been reflecting on what made that incredible rescue possible.

Because when disaster strikes, it is human nature that drives us to rush to the rescue, but

Community bonds are our best insurance

The Thailand cave rescue operation saw hundreds of organisations and individuals work together seamlessly. Picture: Captain Jessica Tait, US Air Force / Wikimedia.

BY DENIS MORIARTY, GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR, OUR COMMUNITY

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Our Community Matters • 18 •Toolbox (continued)

it is good organisation and good leadership that give a rescue mission every chance of success.

For two weeks outside the Tham Luang cave, that organisation was clearly visible, even above ground.

We saw it in the truckloads of scuba tanks, coils of rope, water pumps and hoses.

These tangible items mirrored the intangible human assets, the skills and training and experience of dozens of organisations and thousands of individuals, galvanised to beat monsoon rains, diminishing oxygen levels, starvation and the limits of human endurance in the race for survival.

Australians were in the thick of it, like the cave-diving doctor Richard Harris, who risked his own life to help the team to safety.

Having suffered our fair share of disasters, Australians have developed the capacity to help respond to people in need.

When bushfires whipped by wild winds and 46-degree heat killed 173 people in Victoria in 2009, and when scores were wiped out in floods in Queensland two years later, countless people offered to help on the ground, give blood or send cash.

Each time disaster strikes, we rally to the cause.

We respond instinctively, much as a family would.

Yet beyond the emergency and defence services that step in first, and the SES volunteer crews who literally mop up, it’s community groups that are there for the long haul with shelter, clothes, food, and a shoulder to cry on.

In Thailand, you can bet the local sporting clubs, schools, and community groups will stay involved to help ensure the affected boys don’t suffer lasting ill effects.

Those same organisations also help the victims of tragedies and disasters that don’t dominate the headlines – asylum seekers, the homeless, victims of violence and poverty.

Without these organisations, our humanity would be diminished and our lives would be immeasurably poorer.

But what enables communities to act effectively – and not just with good intentions – is organisation and community leadership.

Australia has 600,000-plus not-for-profits and community groups: sporting and service clubs, charities, health services, foster care organisations, neighbourhood houses, schools and the like, spread across the nation, adept at helping where help is needed.

They’re able to do this because they’ve put so much time and effort into building their capacity to act, often over years.

That’s a result of never-ending meetings, fundraising events, phone calls, cashflow forecasts and grant applications.

All of these things add up, over time, to community organisations with clout.

And in a crisis, a well-oiled committee can pull in the favours, bring the right people into the room, make the right phone calls and lean on those in power.

It is those organisations with strong leaders, a resilient culture, an ethical mission and decent resources that are our best insurance in times of trouble.

That’s where you come in. If you’ve ever watched help materialise when it’s most needed, it’s not a miracle. You’re seeing the results of years of preparation.

So if now’s not the right time to volunteer to help, when is?

Our Community Matters • 19 •Analysis

Liberal Party maverick Tony Abbot has raised the possibility that the Catholic Church is being persecuted by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) for its opposition to government policies. “In a country under the rule of law, being critical of a government policy should never be the catalyst for official investigation,” he tweeted.

His comment followed a Weekend Australian report that Catholic Education Melbourne

was under investigation by the ACNC because during the Batman by-election in March, it commissioned robocalls and distributed leaflets that criticised government education funding changes. It told voters that Labor would restore the funds.

Catholic Education Melbourne is a charity. Being a charity, and accepting the tax concessions that come with charity status, has longstanding rules. One of them is that you can’t proselytise for a political party.

A charity is, however, allowed to tell people that it agrees or disagrees with particular policies held by political parties. The difference between that

When is a charity not a charity?

BY CHRIS BORTHWICK, THINKER IN RESIDENCE, OUR COMMUNITY

We all know what a beard is – up to a point.

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Our Community Matters • 20 •Analysis (continued)

and telling people that they should therefore vote in a particular way can be unclear.

In the words of the ACNC, “A charity can assess, compare or rank the policies of political parties or candidates in carrying out its charitable purpose. A charity may distribute information or advance public debate about the policies of political parties or candidates for political office, if it is furthering or aiding one of the charitable purposes set out in the Charities Act. This may be done by assessing, critiquing, comparing or ranking those policies.”

However, if an organisation wants to be a charity, it must not have a “disqualifying purpose”. Having the purpose of “promoting or opposing a political party or candidate for political office” is a disqualifying purpose.

It’s a fine line. Organisations on both the left (350.org) and the right (Catholic Education Melbourne) of the political spectrum have specifically tried to target voters during elections with criticisms of one party or another, and both have received “please explain” letters from the ACNC.

Here we come, however, to what is known in philosophy as the beard problem. We all know what a beard is – up to a point. A person with

one hair on their chin, or two, or three, doesn’t have a beard. How about fifty? A thousand? Ten thousand? The Economist, by the way, says that the average beard has between 7,000 and 15,000 hairs. There is a line, but it’s not absolutely clear at what precise number facial hair clicks over from “not beard” to “beard”. It’s fuzzy (we all know beards like that) and requires fine judgement. So does setting the line between “charity” and “not a charity”.

We hope that the people making the decision are judicious, sympathetic, and ready to give good intentions the benefit of the doubt, but we also want there to be a line and consequences for crossing it. If we want a warning about what happens when billionaires are able to pour tax-deductible millions of dollars into political advocacy without effective restriction, we need only look at Donald Trump’s America.

Before Tony Abbott cries wolf, he should check that it’s not in fact a properly authorised guard dog. The rest is up to the dog.

MoreIt’s all about the purpose, not the activity: Community Council for Australia/Pro Bono News

Advocacy by charities: ACNC guidance

Attention podcast people: our 2018 Communities in Control speeches are now uploaded and ready for listening. Hear from Gillian Triggs, Stan Grant and other thought leaders on reducing inequality and encouraging community leadership.

www.communitiesincontrol.com.au/cic/podcast

Get your podcasts here

Our Community Matters • 21 •News

Community donors keep giving as others

close their purses

The Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies at QUT this year published its analysis of tax-deductible donations in 2015–2016 by individual taxpayers, which found that donations peaked in 2014–2015 at $3.1 billion before dipping in 2015–2016 to $2.9 billion.

The number of taxpayers making donations also fell, by about 600,000 people to 4.51 million (about one third of all taxpayers), and the average proportion of income donated fell too, the report found.

In contrast, the total value of donations made via GiveNow has grown by 10% in the past year, and the average donation now sits at $246, its highest level ever.

The GiveNow team believes the contrast between donation trends on that platform and donation trends nationwide highlights a shift towards greater giving to small- to medium- sized community organisations. GiveNow is on track to hit $100 million in donations collected for the Australian community sector (since 2001) by the end of 2018.

BY MATTHEW SCHULZ, JOURNALIST, OUR COMMUNITY

Our Community’s donations platform, GiveNow, is bucking a national trend that’s seen donations slump more than 7% in 12 months, a detailed analysis of Australian Taxation

Office (ATO) data shows.

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The GiveNow team. Picture: Ellen Smith.

Our Community Matters • 22 •News (continued)

“While we’ve looked at that general market dip in donor dollars with concern, we’ve just stayed focused on what we’re trying to achieve – technology that works well, minimal fees, and the best experience for donors and recipients alike,” GiveNow executive director Cathy Truong said.

“So far that strategy has meant we have seen only growth in donation activity.”

Asked why GiveNow seems to have dodged the donations dip, Ms Truong said, “Our hypothesis is that there is a move to increase donations to more localised activities, away from large donations to large organisations, to the small- to medium-sized community organisations that GiveNow and Our Community works most closely with.”

“I believe it is because donors want to connect with, and provide support for, their local community organisations.”

GiveNow’s status as Australia’s lowest-transaction-fee giving platform has also been a factor, she said.

“This year we processed $13.5 million in donations to organisations in every sector: health, community, youth, asylum seekers, international aid, indigenous issues, and many more. We’re over the $93 million threshold now in donations since inception, but we’re expecting that growth trend to continue with some new features we’ve recently added.”

Late last month, GiveNow developers rolled out a feature that lets organisations embed a donations tool directly onto their sites.

Earlier this year, GiveNow also launched CrowdRaisers, a “peer to peer” tool that allows supporters to raise funds on behalf of their favourite organisations, but for a flat 3.8% fee – a lot less than other organisations, which charge 5–10% per donation on top of other fees.

IN DEPTH: Who Gives? Insights from GiveNow donations 2001–2016

QUT study: Tax-Deductible Donations Made By Individual Australian Taxpayers in 2015–16

GIVENOW: GiveNow.com.au

Ever felt frustrated by having to apply for multiple permits from different state and territory governments just so you can run a meat raffle?

Charities have five more days to make submissions to an inquiry on how governments could streamline fundraising regulation.

This and other terms of reference are being considered by the Senate Select Committee on Charity Fundraising in the 21st Century, which will report by 18 October.

You can read all the terms of reference or make a submission here. Submissions close on Monday 6 August.

Fundraising regulation gets a grilling

Our Community Matters • 23 •Need to know

Framing for fundraising“Charities should consider altering how they describe their core costs, by providing average instead of fixed costs, using robust evaluation to communicate their impact per [dollar] invested, and by showcasing backroom staff who are integral to a charity’s function.” – Clare Delargy and Michael Sanders, authors, To the Core

A new report from UK think tank Charity Futures examines techniques for incentivising donors to fund core rather than program costs. To the Core offers up six solutions based on behavioural economics to influence donors’ natural biases and assumptions, to ensure charities achieve financial stability. Read the report

Your two-minute NFP news digest

Order not quite restored in HonoursMore women (six) than men (four) were awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia on the Queen’s Birthday honours list this year – the first time ever that women have outnumbered men at any level in an Australian honours list. However, women received only just over a third of all the honours awarded. See the full list here

Time’s up for RSL chief“RSL National will soon have a clear path forward and know what steps it must take to get back on track.” – Gary Johns, ACNC Commissioner

The president of the Returned and Services League of Australia, Mr Robert Dick, has resigned following a formal Direction from the ACNC to conduct a review of the charity’s board and governance practices. Read more

Hacking altruism“Many people find the idea of applying quantitative reasoning to altruism repugnant – like charging family members for a meal. Surveys show that while the effective-altruism movement has grown quickly, it has mainly done so within a limited group of people – ie, young white men with degrees in science and philosophy.”

The Economist examines “effective altruism”, the social movement trying to bring scientific rigour to philanthropy. Read the article

From head office to homelessless“One year it rained, and I woke up and literally had to peel the cardboard off my face. I thought – that’s what it’d be like every night. Freezing, raining. And not feeling safe. If I had to do this day in, day out – how on earth could I get myself out of this downward spiral?” – Anonymous Vinnies CEO Sleepout participant

When CEOs sleep rough for one night for the Vinnies CEO Sleepout , does it really result in change, or is it a self-serving PR stunt? Western Sydney University marketing researchers interviewed 22 participants in an effort to find out. Read the results of their research in The Conversation.

Our Community Matters • 24 •Conference preview

This year’s Community Directors Conference, formerly the Board Builder Conference, will help guide you to a clear picture of 2020, with detailed sessions on:

• How to power change in your organisation with the right data platforms

• How to transform your organisational structure in a complex environment

• Troubleshooting and future-proofing your organisation

• How to ensure your not-for-profit is cyber-safe

• How to price your services with earned income

• Secrets from the “board doctor”, our expert panel.

This year’s keynote speaker is Susan Pascoe, AM, chair of the Community Directors Council and former commissioner of the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission. For insights into the increased scrutiny, funding issues and political challenges facing the sector, look no further.

We’ve also got outcomes measurement expert Jen Riley conducting a Q&A about unusual data methods being pioneered by Windana Drug and Alcohol Recovery, and by The Huddle, based at the North Melbourne Football Club.

Every organisation needs a clear picture of how it will look and what it aims to achieve in the next 18 months, and good leadership is key.

2020 vision: reinvent your organisation in less than two years

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Our Community Matters • 25 •Conference preview (continued)

Greening Australia CEO Brendan Foran and chair Gordon Davis have agreed to reveal their organisation’s tough transformation from one of its darkest times into a new model for a national organisation that fields 150 staff across 30 locations.

Moores is sending two senior legal principals, Catherine Brooks and Skye Rose, to help you avoid some of the toughest issues facing the sector: child protection, sexual harassment and wrongful termination.

Media veterans Aileen Berry and Brian Walsh will talk tactics in the make-or-break battles that determine whether your organisation’s reputation will survive a crisis intact.

Cyber expert Fergus Brooks decodes IT gobbledegook to explain what measures your organisation should take to avoid being the next one to fall victim to hackers, as well as what to do if the worst happens.

And when it comes to money, no one understands pricing of services quite like Dr David Gilchrist, whose expertise in the NDIS model and its funding model is unmatched.

Finally, this year’s conference brings you the “board doctors”, ready to diagnose whatever ails you – whether its finances, policies or internal strife – and suggest appropriate treatment.

This program has been designed with you in mind, drawing on surveys and comments about previous conferences to create an event that’s second to none.

We’re offering you access to the skills and knowledge you need to reinvent your board and your organisation – and make the world a better place – while catching up with like-minded people. Don’t miss this opportunity.

Lock in your spot at this year’s conference, Friday 14 September 2018, at the Moonee Valley Racecourse in Melbourne.

Register online: www.communitydirectors.com.au/conference2018

Susan Pascoe’s keynote speech will set the tone for the Community Directors Conference.

Our Community Matters • 26 •Training

How to win grants and influence people

Winning grants involves more than simply completing a form and waiting for the money to land. This half-day course will teach you how to develop processes that will make finding and winning grants quicker, easier and more effective. Drastically increase the number of grants you can apply for without pushing yourself (and your group) into an early grave, and learn how to make your application compelling and resonate with the grant provider.

This course will be held in Melbourne on August 23.

For more information and to sign up, visit the Institute of Community Directors website: www.communitydirectors.com.au/icda/events/sign-up.form?conferenceId=288.

Australia Council arts governance program: one-day workshop

The Australia Council arts governance program has been developed specifically for the arts sector. It promises to enhance participants’ leadership in arts governance.

Registration for this workshop will give you access to one day of governance training as

well as two years of membership of the Institute of Community Directors Australia (ICDA), a specialist not-for-profit governance membership body. It also includes access to a private arts governance online forum.

Attending as a group? The registration fee for this training is $350 per group of up to three people.

No sessions in your location? Demand for this program is very strong and many scheduled sessions have sold out. Further dates and locations will be added according to demand. Please let us know if you’re interested in attending a workshop in your location by emailing leadershipprogram@australiacouncil.gov.au.

Check out the course dates below and then register for the Australia Council arts governance program here.

Adelaide 6 August

Mt Gambier 8 August

Melbourne 15 August SOLD OUT

Albury 23 August

Broome 22 September

Upskill

Our Community Matters • 27 •Training (continued)

Expand your network – and gain a diploma

Make 2018 the year you upgrade your qualifications and expand your network by studying for a Diploma of Business (Governance). Australia’s only diploma-level governance qualification is designed specifically for existing and prospective not-for-profit board or committee members and the CEOs and senior staff who work alongside them. Check out the course start dates below and then enrol now.

Alice Springs August 27

Brisbane October 15

Melbourne November 12

Perth October 15

Sydney November 12

Tailored training – made to measure

Did you know Our Community can tailor a training program specially to meet your organisation’s needs? We’ll come to you, wherever you’re based in Australia. Contact us for more information on the training we can offer in these areas:

• Grants and fundraising

• Boards, governance and leadership

• Finance, insurance and risk management

• People management

• Strategic planning, review and revitalisation

• Communication and promotions

• Community engagement and advocacy

• Marketing and media

All training is delivered by experienced, engaging community sector practitioners, and has been thoroughly road-tested to ensure its relevance and applicability at the coalface.

Contact us to talk about your requirements – email our training coordinator, Alan Matic, at alanm@ourcommunity.com.au.

Has this special issue of Our Community Matters given you a taste for leadership? Hungry for more? You need to join the Institute of Community Directors (ICDA), Australia’s best-practice network for the members of Australian not-for-profit boards, committees and councils, and the senior staff who support them.

Membership starts at just $65 a year and gives you exclusive access to ICDA’s member newsletter, Community Directors Intelligence.

The July issue featured 40 pages of leadership insights and tips. Read all about it on the ICDA website here.

Leadership resources for community directors

Our Community Matters • 28 •Suppliers

Good Suppliers is Our Community’s directory of product and service providers aimed at the social sector. All businesses listed in the directory

have extensive experience working in the sector.

Megan J Buntine Consulting Services, VicWith decades of experience working in the

community, government, business and advocacy sectors, we provide a range of services and are

the ideal partner to help you achieve what’s most important to you.

Find out more about this supplier

Digital Services Lab Pty Ltd, MelbourneIf you want to attract volunteers, grantmakers,

staff and donors to your organisation, your online presence is extremely important. We can work with you to tell your story, share your insights

and increase your reach.

Find out more about this supplier

SDJA Audit Specialists, SydneySDJA is a progressive and dynamic firm providing

cost-effective, reliable, value-based audit solutions to the not-for-profit industry.

Find out more about this supplier

Emergent Futures Pty LtdWe are a foresight consulting company. We help organisations think about the future so they can

make better strategic decisions today.

Find out more about this supplier

Good Suppliers

To see more Good Suppliers, go to www.goodjobs.com.au/job/supplier/find.

To list your business in the Good Suppliers online directory, go to www.goodjobs.com.au/job/good-supplier.

Our Community Matters • 29 •Vacancies

Good JobsAt GoodJobs.com.au, our mission is to connect purpose-driven people with organisations

in the not-for-profit and community sectors. We want to help energetic, idealistic, and passionate people overcome obstacles and achieve their career ambitions and dreams.

Selected current vacancies

Finance Manager Alcohol and Drug Foundation, MelbourneThis role provides strategic and operational leadership in the management of the ADF’s finances and business operations. It is responsible for budgetary planning and reporting, financial compliance, and ensuring that the necessary financial infrastructure is in place to support current and future operations, projects and broader community activities of the ADF. Applications close 9 am Thursday 16 August.

For more information click here.

Brighter Futures Community Connectors (two roles) Anchor Inc, Melbourne (Lilydale or Scoresby)“Brighter Futures” is designed to connect young people leaving care to opportunities in the community aligned with their passions, skills and interests. Anchor and Brighter Futures are delivering this pilot program over the next two years.

The right candidates will be well connected to the community in Melbourne’s outer east in business, education, sport, and recreation, and will be able to leverage these connections for young people aged 15–23 years who are transitioning from foster care, kinship care or residential care to enable them to realise their

goals and aspirations. Applications close 9 am Monday 6 August.

For more information click here.

Psychologist Healesville Indigenous Community Services Assocation, Healesville, VicThis position is responsible for working in collaboration with a small multi-disciplinary mental health care team in the delivery of culturally appropriate psychology services to clients and their families within the serviced Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities. Applications close Sunday 12 August.

For more information click here.

Senior Manager Centre Operations – North and West Relationships Australia Victoria Inc, Camberwell, VicIn this role, reporting to the general manager of operations, you will manage, coach and develop centre managers and indirectly centre staff, providing an organisational response to operational issues and program areas. The role is based at our Camberwell office with frequent travel to north-west Melbourne and regional Victoria. Applications close Monday 6 August.

For more information click here.

Our Community Matters • 30 •Vacancies

Board Matching ServiceHere’s a selection of the board vacancies currently advertised online at Good Jobs

and the Institute of Community Directors Australia Board Matching Service.

To advertise your board vacancy (it’s free!), go to www.goodjobs.com.au/job/board/advertise.form.

Australian Capital Territory General board member, Australian National Capital Artists Inc

ANCA provides affordable and professional studio and exhibition space to artists. ANCA is an artist-run initiative supporting over 40 artists working in 35 purpose-built non-residential studios.

ANCA is looking for a new board member with financial expertise; for example, a financial advisor or accountant.

Queensland All board roles, National Parks Association of Queensland Inc

The National Parks Association of Queensland Inc (NPAQ) promotes the preservation, expansion and good management of national parks in Queensland. It invites expressions of interest in joining the NPAQ Council from persons who would like to make a practical contribution to nature conservation, and who have useful skills and experience.

Victoria Several board roles, Free to Feed

Free to Feed is a not-for-profit social enterprise championing people who have sought refuge and asylum in Australia. The opportunity exists for three people to join the board of directors to rejuvenate governance and provide expertise, guidance, mentoring and support to so that Free to Feed can thrive in a new phase of maturation.

South Australia General board members, Adelaide Botanic Gardens Foundation

The Adelaide Botanic Gardens Foundation raises funds to support the board of the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium of South Australia. It is seeking committee members who have an interest in gardens, the environment, science or conservation.

Priority will be given to candidates with a background in philanthropic giving, and a willingness to engage in peer to peer leveraging, asking for and securing philanthropic gifts or corporate partnerships.

Queensland General board members, Selectability Ltd

Selectability is a not-for-profit community mental wellbeing and suicide prevention service extending from Cairns to Mackay, including Townsville (where head office is based), Charters Towers, Palm Island, Ingham and Mt Isa.

Selectability was created in March 2017, following the merger of Supported Options in Lifestyle and Access Services (SOLAS) and Mental Illness Fellowship North Queensland (MIFNQ).

We have already helped more than 250 North Queenslanders with psychosocial disabilities access and implement an NDIS plan of their choice. We are experiencing significant and steady growth.

Our Community Matters • 31 •Calendar

World Breastfeeding Week

Book Week

AUGUST 1–7

AUGUST 18–24

In a world filled with inequality, crises and poverty,

breastfeeding is the foundation of lifelong good health for

babies and mothers.

Our tip: tie saucepans to your child with string for an easy Folk

of the Faraway Tree costume.

Homelessness Week 2018

Adult Learners Week

AUGUST 6–12

SEPTEMBER 1–8

Homelessness Australia is encouraging the community

to get active as citizens to call on political leaders to make the changes needed to end

homelessness.

Lifelong learning offers opportunities for all of us to reach our full potential and improve our quality of life.

Dying to Know Day

Include a Charity Week

AUGUST 8

SEPTEMBER 10–14

Talking about death never killed anyone. Don’t die with your end-

of-life plans unmade, unsaid, unshared.

This campaign aims to encourage people to leave a gift to charity in their will. For more information on registering with the campaign as a charity, visit

the website.

Here are some of our favourite community events, festivals and awareness-raisers for August and September.

Send details of your group’s nationally significant event to service@ourcommunity.com.au and we’ll publish it online or in Our Community Matters.

Our Community Matters • 32 •Need to know (continued)

51 Stanley St, West Melbourne Victoria 3003 Australia

Telephone (03) 9320 6800

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